Questions for your cloud computing supplier – your comments

” Excellent post Simon and you highlight some of the major security concerns that C levels have when it comes to cloud computing. Another concern should also be the importance of your cloud provider’s reputation. Potential cloud customers need to ask: Who is really managing my company’s sensitive information? What are their internal security practices? How well do they handle incident response? How reliable is the infrastructure that provides the service? Are they prone to service outages? How can my service provider recover my cloud stuff? All of those are very valid questions and concerns that lurk in the minds of potential cloud adopters. Let’s put some of those concerns to rest!” Paul Richards

Thanks for that response Paul, you have highlighted some great points that customers should ask potential providers at both a technical and operational level. Customers should also question:

The provider’s financial stability. Will they be able to keep systems up and running? What is their pedigree in providing such system availability over time? (Not just in the last twelve months!)

The SLA’s (Service Level Agreements) they provide.

The providers approach to recovery. Will they recover the system on failure or disaster? In what time? To what extent? Business continuity and recovery should always be a ‘must have’ rather than an after thought.

Your points also interlink well with my response to Baggy on data portability. As stated there; it’s critical to know who is managing your data, how secure it is and how easy it is to port. These are all critical questions to ask when selecting a cloud services provider.